


To Cure a Hangover (You Need Espresso and a Date)

by wakandan_wardog



Series: Tumblr Shenanigans [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-06-08 04:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15235203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakandan_wardog/pseuds/wakandan_wardog
Summary: Prompt: "Would you ever write: WinterIron with age difference? Like teacher!Bucky with Student!Tony? :P"





	1. Chapter 1

Tony sprawls in his seat and waits for history class to start, smirking as Rhodey flicks a folded piece of paper down their shared section of table and he catches it easily. He unfolds it with a flourish, scribbling his response and sending it sailing back as the door bangs open.

A tired looking man shuffles in, jeans and a henley layered over a tee, a scarf double looped around his neck. He’s handsome and built, with five o’clock shadow and brown hair long enough to pull into a messy tail. There’s a coffee in one hand and a bag in the other, and he flings the bag onto the desk before pacing around to lean against the front with a casual cross of his legs. 

“Listen up, Heathens.” He mutters, New York thick on every word. “I’m your sub for the day, and my name is Bucky. I admit, I’m hungover and I really don’t care about history, but I lost a bet and we’re not gonna talk about it. Any of you Boston boys give me shit about my accent though, and you’ll regret it. Understood?”

Tony’s staring. Tony can’t help staring. This man looks like sex in a scarf and he’s Brooklyn bold and drinking coffee from Tony’s favorite coffee cart with what looks like three espresso shots in it. It could be love. He might be drooling. 

“ _Tones_!” Rhodey snaps in a whisper and flings the paper over. “You’re drooling, man.” 

“Shut up.” Tony snaps, shaking out of it and pawing at the paper. He glances up at the substitute and freezes, his brown eyes locked onto a gaze the color of storm clouds at sea. Oh god.

“Cutie in the front row.” Bucky smirks, wolflike. “You just volunteered to tell me what the fuck I should talk about today. Answer carefully, and I buy you a coffee after class.”

“Uhh.” Tony glances down, fighting a blush, and blinks as another piece of paper slides over, sent to him by Rhodey. There’s a cliff notes version of their last lesson on it, and he shoots his best friend a grateful glance. 

He needs that coffee date, oh my god. Coffee with a hot man. Tony’s perfect day. With Rhodey’s help, he just might get it.

The cute brunet murmurs an answer, a charming blush on his cheeks, and Bucky smiles into his coffee the whole time. Steve’s an ass, but it looks like Bucky might owe him one. The doe-eyed guy in the first row is definitely worth climbing out of bed with a hangover. Too bad for Steve that Bucky just locked down a first date. 

_Today’s fuckin’ great._


	2. Chapter 2

Winifred Barnes may have raised herself a reckless and unapologetic bastard of a son, but she didn’t raise a fool. Well, not a complete fool, which is more than can be said for Sarah Rogers. How Steve manages to teach class every day and not hit on the guy is truly a mystery to Bucky, and he plans to say so at his earliest convenience.

Honestly, before now he’d just listened to his best friend whine and then laughed about it with Sam. No harm in it, Steve was the one that agreed to morning classes and then complained about _‘Early morning light and whiskey-deep eyes, Buck, oh my god I can’t remember my lesson plans most days._ ’ Steve deserved to be laughed at, and Bucky had happily filled that role. But now, now that he knows exactly what Steve’s been facing down for the last few weeks? Well, the man may deserve an apology… but only after Bucky’s taken this dreamboat out for coffee.

So Bucky makes his move. Rash and bold and a thousand miles an hour, right out the gate. And yeah, maybe he offers it up without thinking, but the sweet number in the front row is smiling back at him and oh, _oh no_ , he’s blushing and he’s adorable. Something in Bucky’s belly clenches, sinking claws into his guts and wrenching at his lungs until he can’t help but breathe a little unsteady.

“What’s your name, Sugar?” He purrs, his tone gone a little deeper than his normal speaking voice. It’s textbook bedroom and Steve would be scandalized and calling him out on it, if he were here. But Steve’s in bed sleeping off the hangover, and Bucky’s getting a date with-

“Tony.” Said cutie offers with a shy smile. “Tony Stark.”

Tony Stark.

“Nice ta meet ya, Tony.” Bucky grins, lifting his cup to his mouth and smirking as brown eyes follow the motion. “What am I teachin’?”

Tony visibly swallows, dark eyes wide and wanting as he begins to articulate a reply and oh, James is a bad man but he’s not sorry at all. _Too bad, Steve._

*

By the end of the class Bucky is sober enough to make smart decisions, and one of the first ones his brain manages to process is that he is _not_ gonna tell Steve about picking up the bambi-eyed kid in the front row. Maybe he’s managed to tease the kid into a promise of coffee, but he wants at least one more date locked down before he breathes a word of this to his roommate.

Steve has been coming back to the apartment and whining about this kid for three weeks. He’s drifted off in the middle of a conversation at dinner and then snapped back when Clint punched him or Sam poked him in the ribs, only to admit he was thinking about a certain someone. When pressed, he’d admitted it was the same kid in his morning American History course he’d picked up this semester. James had rolled his eyes.

He wasn’t gonna make Steve’s mistakes.

The fact that they grew up together means they’re competitive assholes. The fact that they have similar taste in guys means that Bucky’s willing to do anything that’ll give him the edge over his all-American-delight of a best friend. If that means bribing the cutie with the promise of coffee and teasing him through class with wicked smiles, then it’s something James is willing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it's continuing. And sooner or later we'll get to the coffee date but apparently these nerds want to flirt a little first. XD  
> Also: I'm going on a trip all next week (September 2-8) so updates and comment replies may be slow/non-existent. My tumblr is queued up, and my impulse control is poor, but I can't make any promises!


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, Tony? Hang back a minute?” Bucky asks shyly as the rest of the mob rush to pack up and move on, thrilled to be free from their morning course or eager to get to the next lesson. “I mean, if it ain’t a problem?”

“Sure thing.” Tony smiles, ducking his head as he packs his bag and elbowing Rhodey when his best friend begins to slow down. He shoots a glare and growls. “Oh no, _no_ Rhodey-bear. You are going to pack up and get going.”

“But he wants you to hang back!” Rhodey hisses under the scuffle of the last few departing students.

“Yes, _me_ , not you, Gumdrop. Shoo!”

“But Tones, I-”

“Rhodey, dearest knight in shining armor, love of my life.” Tony begins in a low, emphatic tone. “You are leaving. I appreciate this you watching my back thing. But I very much do not want my protective roommate-slash-bff to chase away the smokin’ hot Brooklyn Babe that is smirking at me and offering to buy me coffee.”

“Tones-”

“His eyes look like the ocean, Rhodey.” Tony wheedles. “He's got hair I would dearly love to pull on. His thighs deserve to have odes written about them. _Odes_ , do you understand me? Now, that is not my thing. But I would gladly get my hands on any part of him and attempt to do it justice in words later. _Capisci?_ ”

Rhodey sighs, shoulders wilting as he responds in muttered Italian. “ _Sì Tonio._ _Io capisco_.”

Tony beams, giving the taller man a hug and a gentle nudge toward the door. “Thanks buddy, you’re the best. I’ll see you later!”

Rhodes grits his teeth, stalking past Barnes with a warning glare. “You hurt him, at all? I’ll make you regret it. I don’t care if you’re a teacher or a cop or a damn politician. You be good to my boy, _Bucky_.”

Bucky blinks at the departing man, eyes a little wide. “Uh, sure? No problem?”

“Ignore him, he’s protective.” Tony murmured, sidling up to the desk with an adorably shy duck of his head. “You wanted to see me, Sir?”

_Sir._

Bucky swallows in an audible gulp, clenching his hands at his sides until the urge to drag Tony close has ebbed. He gives Tony a narrow-eyed look because he can, stifling a growl.  “ _Jesus_ , you’re a damn hazard, you know that?”

Tony looks pleased more than anything, pink in his cheeks and gold flecks gleaming in his dark eyes when he smiles. “Yeah, I may have heard that… So is this you wanting to back out on the coffee bribe now that you’ve gotten through the class?”

“Not on your life.” Bucky huffs. “But I put you on the spot about it, and that wasn’t right’a me. So I wanted to give you a chance to backout, no hard feelings.”

“Mmm, _hard feelings_? Well, maybe a few.” Tony murmurs, thrusting out his lower lip in a pout before he bites at it, feigning thoughtfulness. When he hears Bucky inhale sharply he looks up at the taller man from under the fan of his lashes. “But no, I don’t want to back out. Do you not want to take me out for coffee now, Sir?”

“Jesus.” Bucky lifts a hand to his face, rubbing at his eyes and pressing circles against his temples to try and urge away the headache. Maybe it’s the hangover, maybe it’s Tony, maybe it’s tension that Tony is causing. His skull gives an instant throb and then settles, allowing him to regain some semblance of clear thought. “For the record, I ain’t that much older than you. Steve and I ain’t actual professors, we’re just allowed to pick up and teach a few of the intro courses while we work on our doctorates and whatnot.”

“Or when you lose an unspecified bet during a drinking binge and must suffer through teaching while hungover?”

“You’re a shit.” Bucky laughs, smile gone wide. “But yeah, or then. Wanna go out with a slightly older student that maybe sometimes teaches when he loses bets made at the height of a night out with his idiotic friends?”

“Are you going to buy me a coffee and let me call you Sir?” Tony asks, tilting his head and making his eyes wide and soft.

Bucky swears softly, reaching out and wrapping an arm around the shorter man's waist and dragging him in until they’re pressed chest to chest. Tony appears to fit perfectly under his chin, solid in the chest and abs where they press against Bucky's body. He's got a pretty arch to the curve of his back and a delicious ass on him too, but Bucky behaves, keeps his hand curled around the waist rather than sinking lower to get a handful. Plenty of time for that later, right? “Babydoll, I’ll let you call me whatever you want if you let me buy you coffee and we talk about me takin’ care a’you.”

Tony tilts his head to the side, flashing the line of his throat and smirking. “Yeah. You’re on, Brooklyn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Capisci._ (Italian) Do you understand?  
>  _Sì Tonio. Io capisco._ (Italian) Yes Tony. I understand.


End file.
